In many areas where vehicle traffic is heavy at times, toll roads or toll road segments have been created to enable drivers to go from one location to another in a shorter time period than if they had taken non-toll alternative routes. The use of toll road segments is becoming a burgeoning and proposed trend in many countries. The use of toll and non-toll segments of certain routes between two locations may be implemented, for example, by separate multi-lane roads or even with a toll segment of a single multi-lane highway in order to enable the toll segment to be utilized as efficiently as possible such that free flow of vehicles can be maintained even during high volume “rush hour” periods. Typically, a non-toll road segment has traffic control systems and crossroads where traffic can cross whereas, for the same general route, a toll segment will have no crossroads or traffic signals. Even with toll and non-toll segments however, at times, there may be more traffic on one segment and less on the other segment and this situation may result in an inefficient use of toll and non-toll segments between two locations along a travel route.
For toll roads, electronic toll collection has been available for many years now. The contradiction of a regular toll is that for frequent travelers, the use of a tolled road segment becomes second nature—the idea of paying for the trip becomes so natural that they use the toll road without even thinking. As a result, many of today's toll roads, originally built to save time, are often more congested than the roads they were originally built to replace. Express Toll Lanes exist where lanes of traffic are reserved for vehicles that wish to pay in order to increase the probability of receiving a shorter duration to complete the journey between two specific locations where both a tolled and a non-toll road exists. As traffic congestion increases, the cost of using the road increases to act as a deterrent to using the tolled road segment. The primary issue with this type of approach is that drivers may not receive any benefit from the usage of the toll road instead of the non-toll roads, therefore not receiving value for payment of the toll. If the estimated time taken to drive the non-toll lanes is around the same time to drive the tolled lanes, then there is no value in using the tolled lanes. Also, paying a premium to use the toll lane does not necessarily guarantee free moving traffic.
Thus, there is a need for an improved system in which the amount of toll being charged in tolled segments of a travel route which includes both tolled and non-tolled segments, is adjusted so that the likelihood of free-flowing traffic in conjunction with providing value for money for the drivers in the vehicles which are using the tolled road segment is insured and maintained.